Metacom, known as King Philip, was chief of the Wampanoag Indians 
and son of Massasoit, who lived peacefully with the settlers since the 
arrival of the Pilgrims.  King Philip, however, saw that whites were 
expanding into Indian territory, and made plans to resist.  King Philip 
and a band of Wampanoags vandalized a frontier community in the 
17th century, had begun.  Although the Narragansett and Nipmuck 
Indians joined forces with the Wampanoags, King Philip sensed 
defeat and fled into the forest.  The near annihilation of the 
Narragansett Indians in 1676 ended hostilities, leaving six hundred 
colonists and even more Indians, including King Philip, dead.